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The BirdLife national partner in Spain is known as SEO/BirdLife. Following an approach by ACAP Latest News the environmental NGO has offered its support to this year’s inaugural World Albatross Day (‘WAD2020’) on 19 June, joining seven other BirdLife partners around the world.

nFounded in 1954 and currently with over 16 000 members and a staff of over 80, SEO/BirdLife works towards the conservation of birds and biodiversity by conducting scientific studies, disseminating knowledge, engaging in policy, performing activities related to international cooperation and developing environmental programmes with volunteers. Seabirds and the marine environment are among the priorities of the organization (click here).

Pep holds a Balearic Shearwater

Pep Arcos, head of SEO’s Marine Programme, has written to ACAP Latest News: “Albatrosses are iconic birds that remind us in Spain of the far distant and mysterious region of the Southern Ocean. However, some of their cousins do occur in our own waters, such as the endemic and Critically Endangered Balearic Shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus, listed as an ACAP species following a proposal from Spain that was supported by SEO/BirdLife. It is among SEO/BirdLife’s priorities to help save these birds from extinction, and World Albatross Day is an ideal way of recalling all of them, and to let people know about their value and the threats they face”.

SEO/BirdLife also has a working group on seabirds, the Grupo Ibérico de Aves Marinas (Iberian Marine Bird Group, GIAM), formed by amateurs and professionals interested in seabirds and their habitats, that engage in coordinated actions of monitoring and conservation, in liaison with the Marine Programme and other areas of the organization. GIAM conducts campaigns focused on seabirds at different times depending on the threats and needs that arise.

SEO/BirdLife Chief Executive Officer, Asunción Ruiz, coordinated SEO’s work on a EU-funded LIFE project devoted to the Balearic Shearwater (1998-2001), and has written a book on the species (Ruiz & Martí 2004 La pardela balear). She writes to ACAP Latest News:

"Albatrossess are true jewels of the marine environment, and we at SEO/BirdLife did not hesitate to join a World Day initiative for these iconic birds; I hope this will also bring visibility to a rough diamond of our own seas, our ‘particular albatross’, the Balearic shearwater, a species that has been on the focus of our conservation work for years, a marine treasure that we cannot let fly towards extinction.”

Spain is one of the first of the 13 ACAP Parties, following its ratification of the Agreement in August 2003. It hosted the Fifth Session of the Meeting of the Parties (MoP5) in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in May 2015 when Balearic Shearwater was listed in the Agreement. SEO/BirdLife’s ‘Pep’ Arcos attended the meeting as an observer, representing BirdLife International. He is also a member of ACAP’s Population and Conservation Status Working Group (PaCSWG) and has attended several meetings of this group.